South Korea asks US to change beef import agreement

June 06, 2008

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea said Tuesday it has asked the U.S. to make a key change to a beef import agreement, following large-scale protests by South Koreans concerned over mad cow disease. Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun told a press conference that the government asked the U.S. to refrain from exporting any beef that comes from cattle 30 months of age and older, which are considered to be at greater risk of the illness than younger animals. South Korea agreed in April to reopen its market to U.S. beef after it was blocked for most of the past four and a half years in a ban sparked by the first case of the brain-wasting cattle sickness in the U.S. in late 2003. However, the government said Monday that it was delaying the implementation of the agreement. That announcement followed several days of street protests that culminated with large-scale demonstrations over the weekend as well as a request from the ruling party. The government decided on the delay to ''humbly accept the people's will,'' Chung told the press conference. He said quarantine inspections of any U.S. beef will not resume until South Korea receives a response from Washington on the request to avoid exports of older cattle. An official at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul was not immediately available for comment. Several U.S. beef companies offered to label their shipments to South Korea. Tyson Foods Inc., Cargill Meat Solutions Corp., JBS Swift & Co., National Beef Packing Co. and Smithfield Beef Group Inc., said in a joint release that the labels would show whether the cattle were younger or older than 30 months when slaughtered. It would then be up to South Korean customers to decide whether to purchase the meat or not, the companies said. Scientists believe mad cow disease spreads when farmers feed cattle recycled meat and bones from infected animals. In humans, eating meat products contaminated with the brain-wasting cattle disease is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and fatal malady. The April 18 accord allowed for resuming imports in what had been third largest overseas market for U.S. beef. A total of almost 60,000 people rallied in downtown Seoul over the weekend to denounce the government and call for the agreement to be scrapped. Police estimated 38,000 protesters turned out Saturday followed by 20,000 on Sunday. Police have detained 545 protesters since late last month, but have released all but 77 who are still being questioned, a Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Early Sunday morning police fired water cannons at crowds. Protests Monday night were much smaller, with police estimating about 1,500 people gathered in central Seoul amid heavy rain. President Lee Myung-bak told Grand National Party Chairman Kang Jae-sup earlier Monday that he would take steps to resolve concerns after listening to opinions on the issue, according to presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan. Protesters claim U.S. beef is unsafe and say Lee is ignoring their concerns, behaving arrogantly and kowtowing to Washington. Lee's government has repeatedly said American beef poses no safety risk. The timing of the import deal - reached just hours before a summit between Lee and President Bush at his Camp David retreat - has also fueled anger. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Monday that the U.S. will ''continue to work with the South Korean government on this issue.'' McCormack repeated the U.S. stance that American beef is safe. ''We have 300 million Americans who can attest to that.'' Lee, a former chief executive with a top construction company, took office Feb. 25 on a wave of popular support promising to boost South Korea's economy and take a harder line on communist North Korea. Though Lee's margin of victory in December's election was the largest ever in South Korea, his handling of the beef issue has seen his popularity plummet to nearly 20 percent in some public opinion surveys.